BIG NEWS FROM GOOGLE: this week, the company declared a significant update to its core algorithm. Google made the statement through the company’s Twitter account, where Google posted the official list of all updates. According to them, these changes can take up to two weeks to finish.
The update is the second modification to the main algorithm this 2022, and Google made the first one last May. This new upgrade arrived shortly after Google revealed the Helpful Content update last Friday, September 9th.
How can this update affect your online business?
The Google Core Algorithm Update changes different parts of the platform’s algorithm. It is notified when updates are so significant that they impact marketers, especially SEO professionals.
The search algorithm is regularly improving, but an update to the core algorithm is more noticeable to those working in the digital environment. It is still vague how this change might impact search results.
But one thing’s for sure, whenever Google updates its search ranking algorithms, there may be a change in your site’s (or your client’s) search results, worsening or improving it.
That’s why it’s important to check on these updates from Google. It can tell us why your web pages will have their rankings and reviews changed over the next few weeks (without you not having changed anything to justify these changes).
How can the major algorithm update affect the updating of Helpful Content?
Danny Sullivan tweeted about the changes in Google’s algorithms and made it clear that Google’s Helpful Content update is tiny in terms of SEO. This is a part of ongoing measures as the company will resume to adjust and refine these modifications.
“If no updates are announced, but you notice a change in traffic, it makes sense to review all of our guidelines and advice. And if you think, “hmm, maybe some of this content I have isn’t meeting what’s recommended about helpful content,” that’s a sign of what to work on.”
It means that Google may have modified the way they calculate term importance on a page, the weighing of links in PageRank, or both, or a bunch of other factors that they can’t discuss (without giving away the algorithm).
THINK: Google adjusted the weight and importance of multiple ranking aspects.
Google executed a new training set in its most complex form through its machine learning ranking model. Quality raters designated these new results as more relevant than the previous set. The engineers have no idea what weights or how they changed because machine learning works that way.
As a precaution, Google has furnished a list of questions to believe if you think your site has been affected by a major update.
The company offered the following list of questions to consider when evaluating your content:
- Does the content provide original information, reporting, research, or analysis?
- Does the content provide a substantial, complete, or comprehensive description of the topic?
- Does the content provide insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
- If the content draws on other sources, does it avoid copying or rewriting them and provide substantial additional value and originality instead?
- Does the headline and page title provide a descriptive, helpful content summary?
- Does the headline and/or page title avoid exaggerating or shocking?
- Is this the page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
- Would you expect to see this content in or referenced by a printed magazine, encyclopedia, or book?
Expertise questions.
- Does the present content information in a way that makes you want to trust it, such as precise sourcing, evidence of the expertise involved, background about the author or the site that publishes it, such as through links to an author page or a site’s About page?
- If you researched the site producing the content, would you assume it is well-trusted or widely recognized as an authority on its topic?
- Is this content written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well?
- Is the content free from easily-verified factual errors?
- Would you feel comfortable trusting this content for issues relating to your money or your life?
Presentation and production questions.
- Is the content free from spelling or stylistic issues?
- Was the content produced well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
- Is the content mass-produced? Or outsourced to many creators or spread across an extensive network of sites, so individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
- Does the content have excessive ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
- Does content display well for mobile devices when viewed on them?
Comparative questions.
- Does the content provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
- Does the content seem to serve the genuine interests of visitors to the site, or does it seem to exist solely by someone attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
This algorithm modification may not be overly impactful on your digital strategy. These updates shouldn’t be noticeable if you knowingly make good content and follow Google’s guidelines.
The search results may fluctuate in the future, but relax and wait for the updates to finish before examining and taking action.
